Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging service said it was suspending access for some Iranian banks after US sanctions.

The Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications (SWIFT) financial messaging service announced on Wednesday it was suspending access for some Iranian banks "in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system".

Iran and the United States of America conflict on oil dated back to 1953.

When the US in collaboration with the then British government overthrew the government of nationalist prime minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, who was leading the oil nationalization movement against Britain.

The US played the key role in the coup against Mosaddeq and in the aftermath of the coup, in 1954, a consortium was set up to run Iran's oil industry in which the US oil companies and the UK, newly established BP, had equal shares: 40 percent. The remaining 20 percent shares went to two other European companies.

All sanctions on Iran lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal will be back in force on November 5, the US administration has announced.

The sweeping sanctions will see 700 people blacklisted, the US Treasury has announced. These include persons that were granted relief under the 2015 deal, as well as over 300 new names, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

Sanctions will also target payments through the special mechanism that the EU has been creating specifically to avoid Washington’s penalties and to keep buying Iranian oil.

The U.S. has agreed to let eight countries -- including Japan, India and South Korea -- keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on the OPEC producer on Nov. 5, a senior administration official said.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Red Hat (NYSE:RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source cloud software, announced today that the companies have reached a definitive agreement under which IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $34 billion.

US economy about to collapse, taking down dollar & American standard of living – Peter Schiff.

"All the signs are already there. Look at what's happening out there. The stock market is falling, 40 percent of the S&P is already in a bear market. Look at homebuilders, the housing stocks, the financials, the retailers – all these are the same things that were happening in 2007 leading to that crisis," the strategist told RT America.

The US will punish those responsible for killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi by revoking visas and possibly imposing Global Magnitsky Act sanctions, but Saudi Arabia remains an important ally, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Twenty-one Saudi citizens will have their US visas revoked or be declared ineligible for them as part of the response, the State Department said on Tuesday. In a short press conference, Pompeo said the US was “exploring” the option of imposing sanctions as well.

SAUDI ARABIA, so far, has tried bluster and bullying to silence the questions about journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago Tuesday.

On Sunday, a regime statement threatened to “respond with a larger action” to any sanction stemming from the case; Saudi-owned mediafloated such steps as cutting back oil production, buying arms from Russia and holding back counterterrorism intelligence.

On Monday, King Salman told President Trump in a phone call that he “denies any knowledge of what took place,” according to Mr. Trump, who added “it sounded to me like maybe it could have been rogue killers.”

Growing list of US media outlets and business leaders will skip event amid concern over Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance.

Several US media organisations and business leaders have pulled out a major Saudi investment conference over the disappearance and suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi, as global pressure for answers about the whereabouts of the prominent journalist mounts on the Gulf kingdom.

Following the alleged assassination of a journalist critical of the kingdom, that’s the question leaders of the world’s biggest banks and investment firms must ask themselves before they fuel up their jets and head to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Davos in the Desert” in just over a week.

From a strictly moral perspective, if they believe a scintilla of what has been put forward by Turkish authorities, they should bow out. But it’s not that simple.

World Bank joins CNN and Financial Times in pulling out of kingdom’s showpiece investment event.

A high-profile investment summit in Riyadh later this month is rapidly becoming a fiasco as prominent businesses and media groups have pulled out over Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement in the disappearance and possible murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.